Lake Erie Ballet Reimagines The Wizard of Oz

It’s time to take a trip down the yellow brick road – but make sure your ballet slippers are laced up first. Lake Erie Ballet presents The Wizard of Oz this weekend, so find your sparkly red heels and give Toto a pat on the head as you walk out the door to head to the historic Warner Theater.

The production is a premier of a full-length, original ballet conceived by Lake Erie Ballet’s new artistic director, Darren McIntyre, and features the company’s dancers who hail from across the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, and Japan. Scoring the background will be the Lake Erie Ballet Orchestra, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, performing the original music of the 1939 classic film.

If an original ballet interpretation of a beloved book and film still isn’t enough for you, Sunday’s performance will be a Matinee Masquerade, where all audience members are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite Wizard of Oz character. (Any favorite, including the flying monkeys. The flying monkeys just don’t get any love.) Additionally, Lake Erie Ballet will present two special performances at the Warner: one for area students and one autism-friendly show, both Friday.

So whether you’re a cowardly lion, a heartless tin man, a brainless scarecrow — or even a Dorothy, longing to find a way back home or back to the memories of your youth — Lake Erie Ballet’s production of The Wizard of Oz will have something for you. Head off to see the Wizard: the wonderful Wizard of Oz. — Sara Toth